When we last reviewed Civilization Revolution, we thought it was a streamlined yet slightly glitchy world-conquering sim game that felt pretty good on Apple’s handheld iDevice. Now a new, plus-sized version has been released for the iPad, and it’s big enough to give the original version a Napoleon complex.

What was really impressive about the iPhone version of Civilization Revolution was the way it streamlined the Civilization gameplay mechanics, which have become increasingly complex over the years, and made it into a more tightly focused series of gameplay decisions. Instead of agonizing over raising taxes or placing peasants on the right plots of land, you can focus on the big-picture decisions– namely, who to war with, and whether to emphasize your civilization’s culture, military, economy, or technology.

Stay away from Pompeii.

The maps are still tiny, especially when viewed on the iPad’s nice big screen, and this can lead to some run-ins with the neighboring civilizations early on. You still can’t customize the type of map you play on, which was a complaint we had with the last game as well. Fortunately, the glitches that plagued us in the last game, like slowdown and sudden crashes, seem to be gone.

Civilization Revolution for iPad sports huge, gorgeous graphics that really show off the iPad’s screen. Characters like the barbarians you conquer and leaders from other civilizations look incredibly vibrant and detailed. However, battle animations are fought in a tiny, postage-stamp sized square in the middle, which is obviously a holdover from the iPhone version and looks distractingly out of place.

Montezuma’s revenge.

Another problem with the game is the difficulty level, but this is adjustable so that you can find the level of competition that suits your ability. While the main Civ series starts out tough even on the lowest levels, try dialing it up a few notches if you’ve ever played a Civ game before. Otherwise, you’ll flatten those other civilizations without much of a challenge.

Few games let you grow from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age, and it’s a real pleasure to rewrite history as you see fit. Civilization Revolution is a great launch title for the iPad, and it’s worth owning even if you already have the iPhone version.

Editor’s Note: This review covers the content exclusive to the iPad version of this game. For the full game review, click here.

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The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

Mini Dayz has launched and it’s a pixelated 2.5D open world that’s as brutal as the desktop version. In this game, the player is dumped on shore with nothing. They must scavenge around for food, water, and weapons while avoiding attack. It’s the kind of game where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible. But that will never be very long. It’s oddly free and seems to only have an ad on the main screen — for now.

Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

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